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Linux is easy

Edubuntu is really impressing me! The installation was easier than Windows. The interface is pretty. The pre-installed applications are fun and intriguing; some, like the movie editor, I want to use before passing the machine onto Noah. What impressed me the most is that after the installation I rebooted and it immediately prompted me that updates were available; exactly as Windows would have done! I expected that Linux was going to be an administrative nightmare. I was wrong!

I’ve partition the harddrive so that Edubuntu will take half. Noah will use this as his primary operating system. Linux will be used for his Internet exploration, research and browser games. Linux will be used for his productivity-school reports, video projects, spreadsheets, email and so forth. Linux will be used for education except when the educational software requires Windows. The Windows partition will be used for Windows specific games that have not been ported to Linux. The Windows partition will be used for websites that require Internet Explorer. The Windows partition will be used for educational software that has not been ported for Windows. He will also use it to become familiar with the Microsoft Office Suite although OpenOffice should make him comfortable enough.

I am really tickled with this setup. I am debating doing Sarah’s the same way.

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What’s that smell?

So the bedroom is starting to get a little gamey. I’m thinking a dirty diaper is under the bed or something. Then it occurs me to that I forgot about the squirrels in the woodstove!

Update: That is absolutely the nastiest thing I have had to deal with in a long time. I dug a hole out back then scooped the squirrel from the fire place and, when I dropped it in the hole, maggots poured from its head! Yuck! And yes, I’ll be on the roof with chicken wire shortly.

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We are violating our children’s rights!

Juliet Pain of Wales hates us. She suggests that someone get Dr. Phil to intervene with us quickly.

Perhaps some relative or friend will get Dr Phil intervention for them soon, as they do seem to have become a tad obsessed with documenting their lives, to the point where it looks as if they are living mainly in order to record them… [Source]

I say bring on the doc! He will say we are an incredibly well balanced, well adjusted, happy family.

We have received numerous thank yous and positive comments from Aspie caregivers for being so open about Tommy’s experiences. I don’t think we have ever posted anything embarassing about the children.

I feel sorry for people that do not understand technology and technology trends until after they happen. We are the midst of a publishing revolution. Biographies are being written real-time. I would love to go back and read about my life in, say, 1976. If privacy is your concern, you are barking up the wrong tree. The smart pass on your keychain reveals your whereabouts and personal information. Cameras abound in places that we never think to look. Your very purchases create a record of your existence and your doing. Without much effort, a person’s day can retrospectively be tracked down to minute.

for the most part, it would appear to be a violation of a child’s basic human rights, with reference to privacy, and of The Rights of the Child, with reference to dignity, and which convention has yet to be ratified by the US – not that it needs to be ratified for the right to truly exist (rights do not exist in reality, no), all that would take would be for the parents to discover or uncover some common sense [Source]

Our websites are but a mere glimpse into our whole lives. Our lives are much more full than what the words in these posts imply. There is more drama. There are more tears. There is screaming and fighting. There is undocumented laughter and joy. There are financial hardships and worry. There is life! You live it once, you should live it fully and we do!

I do no injustice to my children through my publishings. They have no loss of dignity. I know that if I have a heart attack and die today, or get hit by a bus tomorrow, my children can return to these publishing and relive our experiences. Through my writings, I leave a legacy.

Dear Juliet Pain, I hope one day we meet and then you can judge me as a person. I would be interested in seeing if your opinion of my family would change.